Your entire happiness this fall could hinge on how good Cormac McCarthy's new novel is, how gripping Clint Eastwood's adaptation of a best-seller about Iwo Jima proves to be, and whether Cal will have the sole team in the Bay Area that can keep you interested until halftime.

We at Book Review understand that. We're sensitive that way.

That is why, before we break down the books of note coming out September through November, we once again offer our services as your cultural adviser, ferreting out and holding up for your consideration what we think will be the best of the season's Big Three -- books, films adapted from books, and, yes, football.

We start early, as in this Saturday, when the Golden Bears get to play Tennessee. In Knoxville. At night. Cal has a legitimate shot at winning the Pac-10 this year (not to mention playing for a national championship), and beating a ranked SEC team on the road would be, as Hemingway might have said, "a fine thing." Later in the month, new novels by Mark Haddon, Ward Just, Janet Fitch, John le Carre and Michael Tolkin will be in stores, along with a promising story collection by Karen Russell, an essay collection by Jonathan Franzen and a memoir of sorts by esteemed critic Daniel Mendelsohn (art critic Robert Hughes has a memoir out, too, and uber-critic Greil Marcus has book on the very idea of America).

Right there are more than enough excuses for holing up in your apartment until later in the month, when Sean Penn stars as Willie Stark in a new adaptation of Robert Penn Warren's remarkable novel about power and the South, "All the King's Men," and when director Alfonso Cuaron presents his dark vision of P.D. James' bleak sci-fi novel "The Children of Men."

October brings the Oakland Raiders to Candlestick. It's the Battle of the Bay. Bragging rights from San Jose to Redding. And, quite possibly, early jockeying for a high draft pick. It's also the same month that "The Road" arrives, McCarthy's tale of a postapocalyptic America (that may or may not resemble the parking lot after the Niners-Raiders game), along with Michael Lewis' new book, a study of the left tackle position (that may or may not resemble the play of the offensive lines during the Niners-Raider game). There will be new novels by Charles Frazier, Richard Powers, Kate Atkinson, William Boyd, Richard Ford and Heidi Julavits. And it's also the month Hollywood cashes in on nonfiction best-sellers. There's the aforementioned Eastwood movie, "Flags of Our Fathers," as well as a movie of Augusten Burrough's memoir, "Running With Scissors," but also Richard Linklater's take on Eric Schlosser's "Fast Food Nation."

November is full of intriguing possibilities. There are such gambles as Ridley Scott's adaptation of Peter Mayle's novel "A Good Year" (starring Russell Crowe, no less), and there's "The Hoax," starring Richard Gere as Clifford Irving, who wrote a book about an art forger but turned out to be something of a fake himself. Equally interesting, there are memoirs from Steve Wozniak and Pervez Musharraf, and biographies of Walt Disney and Jane Goodall by Neal Gabler and Dale Peterson, respectively.

But there are decidedly sure bets, too, like a new story collection from Alice Munro, who has never disappointed, and a cinder-block-size novel from Thomas Pynchon, who can't seem to give his fans enough. And, of course, there are the Big Games, and we do not mean Cal versus Stanford on Dec. 2. No, we mean when Cal heads down to Los Angeles to play USC in what might turn out to be the most exciting game of the year -- that is until the following week, when the Trojans host Notre Dame in what may then turn out to be the most exciting game of the year.

So much to take in, so little time, we know. We feel your pain.

September fiction

The Scroll of Seduction (Rayo) by Gioconda Belli: novel of Queen Isabelle of Castile by the author of "The Country Under My Skin." Moral Disorder and Other Stories (Doubleday) by Margaret Atwood. Tolstoy Lied: A Love Story (Houghton Mifflin) by Rachel Kadish. All Aunt Hagar's Children (Amistad/HarperCollins) by Edward P. Jones: story collection from the Pulitzer Prize-winning author. The Interpretation of Murder (Holt) by Jeb Rubenfeld.

A Spot of Bother (Doubleday) by Mark Haddon: novel from the author of "The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time." Disobedience (Touchstone/Simon & Schuster) by Naomi Alderman: winner of the Orange Award for New Writers. Forgetfulness (Houghton Mifflin) by Ward Just. A Fictional History of the United States (With Huge Chunks Missing) (Akashic Books) by T. Cooper and Adam Mansbach: anthology featuring pieces from Daniel Alarcon and Amy Bloom. The Zero (ReganBooks/HarperCollins) by Jess Walter.

Mary (McAdam/Cage) by Janis Cooke Newman: mammoth novel about the life of Mary Todd Lincoln. Memorial (Simon & Schuster) by Bruce Wagner. Small Acts of Sex and Electricity (Unbridled) by Lisa Haines. The Return of the Player (Grove) by Michael Tolkin: sequel to the Hollywood noir novel "The Player." St. Lucy's Home for Girls Raised by Wolves (Knopf) by Karen Russell. Half of a Yellow Sun (Knopf) by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie.

The Great American Novel, My Life as a Man and the Professor of Desire (second volume of Library of America collection) by Philip Roth. Brothers (Shay Areheart/Crown) by Da Chen: novel by the author of "Colors of the Mountain." Knots (Riverhead) by Nuruddin Farah: novel by the Somali author of "Links." Paint It Black (Little, Brown) by Janet Fitch: novel by the author of "White Oleander." The Mission Song (Little, Brown) by John le Carre: The "Constant Gardener" author returns to Africa as his setting. Ancestor Stones (Grove) by Aminatta Forna. Only Revolutions (Pantheon) by Mark Danielewski: novel by the author of "House of Leaves."

September nonfiction

Exile on Main Street: A Season in Hell With the Rolling Stones (Da Capo Press) by Robert Greenfield. Making Globalization Work (Norton) by Joseph Stiglitz. Watching the World Change: The Stories Behind the Image of 9/11 (FSG) by David Friend. Life, Death & Bialys: A Father/Son Baking Story (Bloomsbury) by Dylan Schaffer: memoir from the Oakland crime writer. Johnny U: The Life and Times of John Unitas (Crown) by Tom Callahan.

All Governments Lie: The Life and Times of I.F. Stone (Scribner) by Myra McPherson. Supermob: How Sidney Korshak and His Criminal Associates Became America's Hidden Power Brokers (Bloomsbury) by Gus Russo. The Lost: The Search for Six of Six Million (HarperCollins) by Daniel Mendelsohn. Golden Gulag: Prisons, Surplus, Crisis and Opposition in Globalizing California (University of California Press) by Ruth Gilmore.

The Discomfort Zone: A Personal History (FSG) by Jonathan Franzen. The Shape of Things to Come: Prophecy and the American Voice (FSG) by Greil Marcus. Nicole Kidman (Knopf) by David Thomson: meditation on the actress by the San Francisco film writer. Murder in Amsterdam: The Death of Theo Van Gogh and the Limits of Tolerance (The Penguin Press) by Ian Buruma.

The United States of Arugula: How We Became a Gourmet Nation (Broadway) by David Kamp. Easter Rising: An Irish American Coming Up From Under (Houghton Mifflin) by Michael Patrick McDonald. Tigers in Red Weather: A Quest to See the Last Wild Tiger (Walker) by Ruth Padel. Creationists: Selected Essays, 1993-2006 (Random House) by E.L. Doctorow. Imperial Life in the Emerald City: Inside Iraq's Green Zone (Knopf) by Rajiv Chandrasekaran. The Greatest Story Ever Sold: The Decline and Fall of Truth From 9/11 to Katrina (The Penguin Press) by Frank Rich.

Shutting Out the Sun: How Japan Created Its Own Lost Generation (Nan A. Talese/Doubleday) by Michael Zielenziger. Things I Didn't Know (Knopf) by Robert Hughes: memoir by the art critic. Irène Némirovsky: Her Life and Works (Stanford University Press) by Jonathan Weiss: bio of the author of "Suite Francaise." Bad Faith: A Forgotten History of Family, Fatherland and Vichy France (Knopf) by Carmen Callil.

October fiction

Hart Crane: Complete Poems and Selected Letters (Library of America). The Echo Maker (FSG) by Richard Powers: novel by the author of "The Time of Our Singing." Thirteen Moons (Random House) by Charles Frazier: The long-awaited second novel from the author of "Cold Mountain."

The Translator (Black Cat/Grove) by Leila Aboulela. My Girlfriend Comes to the City and Beats Me Up (Cleis Press) by Stephen Elliott: Erotica from the San Francisco author of "Happy Baby." The Anchor Book of Modern Arabic Fiction (Anchor) edited by Denys Johnson-Davies. One Good Turn (Little, Brown) by Kate Atkinson: a sequel of sorts to "Case Histories." The Uses of Enchantment (Doubleday) by Heidi Julavits: new book from the novelist and editor of the Believer. Awake in the Dark (Scribner) by Shira Nayman: The Holocaust is the central theme of this story collection.

The Light of Evening (Houghton Mifflin) by Edna O'Brien. American Religious Poems (Library of America) edited by Harold Bloom. Selected Poems (FSG) by James Fenton. Goodnight, Texas (Unbridled) by William J. Cobb: novel by the author of "The Fire Eaters." Black Girl/White Girl (Ecco/HarperCollins) by Joyce Carol Oates. Restless (Bloomsbury) by William Boyd: novel from the author of "Any Human Heart." The Children's Hospital (McSweeneys) by Chris Adrian.

Lisey's Story (Scribner) by Stephen King. The Lay of the Land (Knopf) by Richard Ford: follow-up to the Frank Bascombe novels ("The Sportswriter," "Independence Day"). Bordering Fires: The Vintage Book of Contemporary Mexican and Chicano and Chicana Literature (Vintage Original) edited by Cristina Garcia.

October nonfiction

The Blind Side: Evolution of a Game (Norton) by Michael Lewis: The author of "Moneyball" tackles football. Blood and Thunder: An Epic of the American West (Doubleday) by Hampton Sides. The God Delusion (Houghton Mifflin) by Richard Dawkins. The Creation: A Meeting of Science and Religion (Norton) by E.O. Wilson. Through the Children's Gate: A Home in New York (Knopf) by Adam Gopnik.

Chicken With Plums (Pantheon) by Marjane Satrapi: new graphic novel from the author of "Persepolis." Prisoners: A Muslim and a Jew Across the Middle East Divide (Knopf) by Jeffrey Goldberg. The War of the World: Twentieth-Century Conflict and the Descent of the West (The Penguin Press) by Niall Ferguson. The Architecture of Happiness (Pantheon) by Alain de Botton. Awake in the Dark: Forty Years of Reviews, Essays, and Interviews (University of Chicago Press) by Roger Ebert.

Home Ground: Language for an American Landscape (Trinity University Press) edited by Barry Lopez and Debra Gwartney: Features contributions from writers such as Antonya Nelson and Luis Alberto Urrea. Andrew Carnegie (The Penguin Press) by David Nasaw. The Oracles: My Filipino Grandparents in America (Heyday Books) by Pati Navalta Poblete: memoir by the former Chronicle editor and columnist. Skin: A Natural History (University of California Press) by Nina G. Jablonski.

Making Comics: Storytelling Secrets of Comics, Manga and Graphic Novels (Harper) by Scott McCloud: by the California author of the landmark "Understanding Comics." Just Kids (Ecco/HarperCollins) by Patti Smith: memoir of the musician's relationship with Robert Mapplethorpe. Ira Nowinski's San Francisco: Poet, Politics and Divas (Heyday Books), foreword by Rebecca Solnit: a collection of three decades' worth of work by the noted photographer. Spy: The Funny Years by Kurt Andersen, Graydon Carter and George Kalogerakis (Miramax Books): an anthology of the iconoclastic magazine on its 20th anniversary.

Gay L.A.: A History of Sexual Outlaws, Power Politics and Lipstick Lesbians (Basic Books) by Lillian Faderman and Stuart Timmons. Life Is Meals: A Food Lover's Book of Days (Knopf) by James and Kay Salter: Foodie book by the author of "Burning the Days" and "Last Night." Feather in the Storm: A Childhood Lost in Chaos (Pantheon) by Emily Wu and Larry Engelmann: memoir of growing up in Mao's Cultural Revolution by Cupertino story writer. Climbing the Mango Trees: A Memoir of a Childhood in India (Knopf) by Madhur Jaffrey: by the James Beard Award-winning cookbook author. Thunderstruck (Crown) by Erik Larson: The "Devil in the White City" author looks at a murder in Edwardian London.

Madame Chiang Kai-shek: China's Eternal First Lady by Laura Tyson Li (Atlantic Monthly Press): First biography of the Chinese Nationalist leader's powerful wife. War by Other Means (Atlantic Monthly Press) by John Yoo: Yoo, who teaches at Cal's School of Law, was a key legal architect of the White House's controversial policies since Sept. 11. Justice for All: Earl Warren and the Nation He Made (Riverhead) by James S. Newton: bio of the former California governor and chief justice of the Supreme Court. A Well-Paid Slave: Curt Flood's Fight for Free Agency in Professional Sports (Viking) by Brad Snyder.

Off the Books: The Underground Economy of the Urban Poor (Harvard University Press) by Sudhir Alladi Venkatesh: A sociologist uses Chicago's South Side to report on ways of survival in America. Yosemite: Art of an American Icon (University of California Press) edited by Amy Scott. Under the Rainbow: An Intimate Memoir of Judy Garland, Rock Hudson and My Life in Old Hollywood (Carroll & Graf) by John Carlyle.

November fiction

Blind Submission (Harmony) by Debra Ginsberg: first novel by the California author of "Waiting" and "Raising Blaze." Soon the Rest Will Fall (Seven Stories Press) by Peter Plate: new noir from the San Francisco author. The View From Castle Rock (Knopf) by Alice Munro: more stories from one of the finest of the form's practitioners. Theories of Everything: Selected, Collected and Health-Inspected (Bloomsbury) by Roz Chast: collection of work by the New Yorker cartoonist. Ines of My Soul (HarperCollins) by Isabel Allende: novel by the Marin County author of "Zorro." Tales of the Out & Gone (Akashic) by Amiri Baraka. Against the Day (Penguin Press) by Thomas Pynchon: Technically, this nearly 1,000-page novel comes out in early December, but most likely it'll be in stores before then.

November nonfiction

Howl on Trial: The Battle for Free Expression (City Lights) edited by Bill Morgan: The story behind Allen Ginsberg's poem, on the 50th anniversary of its publication. iWoz: How I Invented the Personal Computer and Had Fun Along the Way by Steve Wozniak and Gina Smith (Norton). Impounded: Dorothea Lange and the Censored Images of Japanese American Internment (Norton) edited by Linda Gordon and Gary Y. Okihiro. Point to Point Navigation (Doubleday) by Gore Vidal: the sequel to his memoir "Palimpsest."

In the Line of Fire (Free Press) by Pervez Musharraf: memoir by the president of Pakistan. The Varieties of Scientific Experience: A Personal View of the Search for God (The Penguin Press) by Carl Sagan: publication of the astronomer's Gifford Lectures in Natural Theology. The Race Beat: The Press, the Civil Rights Struggle and the Awakening of a Nation (Knopf) by Gene Roberts and Hank Klibanoff. Triumph: The Untold Story of Jesse Owens and Hitler's Olympics (Houghton Mifflin) by Jeremy Schaap: history by the author of "Cinderella Man."

Jane Goodall: The Woman Who Redefined Man (Houghton Mifflin) by Dale Peterson. Time Traveler: A Scientist's Personal Mission to Make Time Travel a Reality (Thunder's Mouth) by Dr. Ronald L. Mallett with Bruce Henderson. San Francisco in Maps: 1797-2006 (Rizzoli) by Sally B. Woodbridge. Glory in a Line: A Life of Foujita -- the Artist Caught Between East and West (FSG) by Phyllis Birnbaum.

The Paris Review Interviews, Vol. 1 (Picador Original) edited by Philip Gourevitch: The heavyweights of literature sound off on their craft. The Best Intentions: Kofi Annan and the U.N. in the Era of American World Power (FSG) by James Traub. Union 1812: The Americans Who Fought the Second War of Independence (Simon & Schuster) by A.J. Langguth.

Walt Disney: The Triumph of the American Imagination (Knopf) by Neal Gabler. Oil on the Brain: Revelations Beyond the Gas Pump (Nan A. Talese/Doubleday) by Lisa Margonelli: a "Fast Food Nation" of sorts about the true cost of gas, by the Oakland journalist. 